Black-striped Sparrow

The black-striped sparrow is about 16.5 cm (6.5 in) long and weighs 26 to 42 g (0.92 to 1.5 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies A. c. conirostris have a mostly gray head with wide black stripes on each side of the crown and a thin black strip through the eye. Their upperparts, tail, and wings are olive-green with yellow at the bend of the wing. Their throat is whitish, their breast and sides pale gray, their belly whitish, and their lower flanks and undertail coverts washed with olive-buff. Juveniles have a yellowish olive head with dark brown stripes, dusky-streaked brownish olive upperparts, and yellowish olive underparts with dark brown streaks. The other subspecies of the black-striped sparrow differ from the nominate and each other thus:

A. c. striaticeps: thin black crown stripes; lighter more yellowish upperparts and paler gray underparts than nominate A. c. viridicatus: similar to striaticeps but overall darker A. c. inexpectatus: smallest subspecies; brownish olive upperparts A. c. umbrinus: like inexpectatus but somewhat larger and brighter A. c. …

The black-striped sparrow has a disjunct distribution. The subspecies are found thus:

A. c. striaticeps: across eastern Honduras and south along the Caribbean slope through Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama into northern Colombia; on the Pacific slope from Costa Rica's central Puntarenas Province through Panama into northern Colombia; separately on the Pacific slope from southwestern Colombia's Cauca Department south through Ecuador to southern Guayas Province The South American Classification Committee has at least one unconfirmed sight record in Peru. A. c. viridicatus: Coiba Island off the Pacific coast of Panama A. c. inexpectatus: upper valley of northern Colombia's Magdalena River A. c. conirostris: northern Colombia from Bolívar Department east to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and south in the lower and middle Magdalena valley and along the eastern slope of the Eastern Andes to Boyacá Department; eastern slope of Venezuelan Andes from Táchira and western Apure north to Portuguesa and east across southern Cojedes and western Guárico; northwestern Venezuela's Lara and Falcón; across northern Venezuela from Yaracuy and Carabobo east to Sucre and Monagas; across northern Bolívar in central Venezuela; separately in extreme northern Brazil A. c. …

The black-striped sparrow primarily feeds on insects, seeds, and fruits; it has also been recorded occasionally taking small lizards and frogs. It forages while hopping on the ground and also gleans from low vegetation.